THE UK arm of a giant American corporation is all set to provide the first tenants of prestigious new business location in York.

But never fear - despite their headquarters being in sunny California these workers will need no help to find their way around.

In fact, the staff at Product Development Corporation UK should be pretty familiar with their new location, at the brand-new Westminster Place development on York Business Park.

For 17 years the team were part of RR Donnelly's printers, delivering Yellow Pages, BT Phone Books and the Thomson Local directories to over 20 million homes and businesses covering the whole of the UK.

Now they are the UK arm of US distribution giant Product Development Corporation Inc, which has set up its headquarters on the edge of the city, in a move announced today by the York Inward Investment Board.

There are currently 20 York based employees who support a highly dedicated and professional team of area managers based across the country.

Simon Raine, PDC UK managing director, said: "We offer a full-service distribution, not only transport and door to door delivery, but also data validation and preparation to enable us to target more accurately the customers of our clients."

And it appears that, in spite of predictions that the proliferation of new, electronic means of communication would eliminate the need for paper-based information, in fact the opposite has happened.

As Simon pointed out: "Now we're opening up new avenues of distribution with the growth of the Internet and e-commerce. It's ironic, but we're about to deliver one million paper-based web directories in London!"

So the prospects are looking good - but why did they choose to stay in York?

Sheena Airlie, PDC office manager, said: "We wouldn't have gone anywhere else. This location in York offers minimal disruption to our staff.

"We've got excellent communications facilities, the ring road, and access to all amenities - restaurants, hotels, etc."

Dave Taylor, marketing manager of York Inward Investment Board, said: "We've been talking to this company since 1999 and we regard it as very good news that one of the leading players in the distribution market want to be here in York.

"This clearly demonstrates the strength of the city's communication links and accessibility to the rest of the UK."